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Seen and Heard International, 09/02/2017 |
Jim Pritchard |
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Wagner-Konzert, London, Barbican, 8. Februar 2017 |
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Jonas Kaufmann is Not Yet Back to his Best Form in Wagner, But Pappano is
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Having the night before seen the supposed ‘star’ of the evening somewhat
outshone by those around her (Angela Gheorghiu in Adriana Lecouvreur) I
arrived at The Kaufmann Residency and will end up suggesting the success of
the evening was because of Antonio Pappano, the London Symphony Orchestra
and the contributions of Karita Mattila and Eric Halfvarson rather than the
‘main man’ himself, Jonas Kaufmann.
When I first heard Pappano
conduct Lohengrin at Bayreuth in 1999 I thought he would become one of the
great Wagner conductors, but unfortunately his performances of that
composer’s music during his long tenure at Covent Garden have paled in
comparison to some of his other work there. Tonight, however, from the
opening of the Prelude to Tristan und Isolde in this all-Wagner programme to
the exhilarating conclusion to Act I of Die Walküre, he confounded my
expectations. There was much to admire in the lyrical, romantic warmth
Pappano achieved from the splendid LSO. He marshalled his forces with a
wonderful awareness of Wagner’s finely-wrought structures of scoring and
motivic figurations. He was clearly acutely mindful of his tenor’s current
vocal abilities, though mostly he never exploited dynamic contrast simply
for easy effect. Under Pappano the volume of the orchestral peaks were
purely an organic manifestation of the yearning and sexual passion inherent
in much of Wagner’s music.
Some of those phrases – which once heard
are never forgotten – are there in the Prelude to Tristan und Isolde, along
with the composer’s concept of ‘endless melodies’ and his supposed heralding
in of ‘modern music’ through the opening ‘Tristan’ chord. This slowly
unwinding music was given a rendition that was refined, dramatically paced
and dynamically fluid.
Jonas Kaufmann is continuing his return to
singing after his well-advertised hiatus. He came back as Lohengrin in Paris
(review here), but here made the serious misstep of attempting the
Wesendonck Lieder so soon after his recovery. I reviewed his CD release
(review here) and although I have heard him in the opera house on numerous
occasions, this was the first time I have heard him in a concert since
Edinburgh in 2006! These songs were originally published as ‘Five Poems for
a Female Voice’; though perhaps there is no real reason a man cannot explore
how suffering is intrinsic to life, angels, a hothouse or the dream-world of
lovers. Indeed, Lauritz Melchior apparently recorded some of them.
With close links between two of the songs and Tristan und Isolde, the
Wesendonck Lieder are strictly not so much Wagner as the work of Felix
Mottl’s orchestrations of earlier piano or chamber versions. It would be
interesting to hear from anyone at the back of the Barbican Hall balcony how
much they heard of Kaufmann’s performance. At the present stage of his
convalescence from his vocal cord trauma Kaufmann’s voice seems somewhat
diminished; there is a sense of fragility in the highest floated top notes
and he use his full-throated tone sparingly. His rendition had an intimacy
that would have been better suited to the Wigmore Hall and with piano
accompaniment. Wagnerian phrases seemed unduly short-changed, nevertheless
‘Schmerzen’ (Sorrows) was restless and impassioned and ‘Träume’ created a
suitably dreamy atmosphere. There was an overreliance on soft head voice and
– to be truthful – I have often heard some baritones sing in recital higher
than Kaufmann was during these songs. More importantly, there is a sense of
existentialism that listeners need to experience from great performances of
this cycle: despite the valiant support of Pappano and the LSO, Kaufmann
never approached the ‘out of body’ transcendence necessary.
After the
interval everything was raised to another level. The first act of Die
Walküre must be among the most oft-performed concert excisions from Wagner’s
Ring. Pappano whipped up a storm right from the start and – perfectly paced
at 67 minutes – conductor and orchestra settled to an urgent – though
sublimely lyrical – reading capped by an incandescent account of the sensual
love scene that brought the Barbican Hall audience to their feet. Sadly
Jonas Kaufmann was a rather lightweight Siegmund. Admittedly, his burnished
timbre and unforced lyricism was impeccable, but whilst his visceral cries
of ‘Wälse!’ were brilliant, his ‘Winterstürme’ – which though admirably
caressing and tender – had just too many crooning soft moments. He currently
does not have the complete range of dynamics or projection to ride
orchestral climaxes as a Wagnerian heroic tenor should. On the plus side,
his diction was – as to be expected – quite unimpeachable.
The
declamatory Karita Mattila is not a ‘natural’ Sieglinde yet was utterly
compelling. Throughout she was neurotic-sounding and by the end of the act
she sounded utterly unbalanced and on the verge of insanity. (For some
reason she conjured up for me the memory of Gloria Swanson’s performance in
Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard film.) It was Eric Halfvarson who nearly
stole the vocal honours from her with a superbly characterised Hunding.
There was no mask of politeness here from his deep, baleful and sonorous
bass voice, he was just a big bully harbouring possessive resentment.
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